


Don’t Let Her In

by stargategeek



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alcoholism, All about the atmosphere, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bleak Setting, Creepy, Drabble-style, F/M, Horror, Mostly Non-Graphic, Pseudo-Incest, Slight sexual inappropriateness, Suburbs, Unsettling, Violence, discomfort, mostly alluded to, past and future
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-24
Updated: 2019-08-05
Packaged: 2020-07-12 19:16:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 5,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19951453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stargategeek/pseuds/stargategeek
Summary: “Cat, I love you.”A small voice whispered through the vent in the wall that connected their bedrooms.They lay together in the dark and whispered secrets and confessions to each other. He was her best friend, had been since they were three.But things had changed since she became the girlfriend of Brandon Stark. Not out of love - he chose her. The prettiest girl in school. It made her popular, elevated her in the eyes of her peers.Unfortunately for Petyr.





	1. 1985 I

_1985_

_~~~~_

“Cat, I love you.”

A small voice whispered through the vent in the wall that connected their bedrooms.

They lay together in the dark and whispered secrets and confessions to each other. He was her best friend, had been since they were three.

But things had changed since she became the girlfriend of Brandon Stark. Not out of love - he chose her. The prettiest girl in school. It made her popular, elevated her in the eyes of her peers.

Unfortunately for Petyr.

Now, their friendship was the whispered secret.

“I love you.”

“Mmm,” was all she said in return.

~~~~

“Let’s play a game!“

“Brandon, please.”

“It’s called ‘Piggy’s Been Caught Red-handed’, Piggy needs to learn a lesson.”

“Cat...”

She laughed along with them. Almost too cruelly. It was like a bad joke gone sour.

“I love you.”

Tears, grey eyes filled with tears.

“I’m going home,” she turned away, walking back up the park path.

“Ned, take her,” said Brandon. “See that she makes it home safely.”

Ned followed behind silently.

“Cat...Cat?”

He pleaded. She walked faster.

“Alright boys, GET HIM!”

They descended on him with fists and kicks, like a flurry of hungry vultures.

“CAAAAAAT!!”

She ran, covering her ears.

~~~~

“You ok?” Ned finally asked her as they fell under the light of The Fingers Apartment building. “You want me to go in with you?”

“Dad’s out drinking. I should be fine.”

“I can stay.”

“You shouldn’t,” she gave him a shy smile, touched his hand with hers.

Ned was older than her, and not nearly as cruel as his brother.

“Ok.”

He followed her to the little playground in the apartment courtyard. They sat on the swings.

“Just stay a moment.”

He nodded.

Light shone on the two doors of her and Petyr’s apartment accusingly.

~~~~

She did not sleep. She laid in bed and waited. Her ear to the vent.

She could hear her father return home. Drunk. She made sure the door to her and Lysa’s room was locked.

It wasn’t until well past midnight she finally heard Petyr return. The familiar squeak of his bedsprings as he curled up over the blankets.

Through the vent she could just make out his outline.

“Petyr,” she whispered.

Nothing. Only a slight wheeze with every strained inhale.

“Petyr, I’m sorry. You know what he would’ve done to me had I said anything.”

He didn’t move, didn’t stir, only kept breathing through his mouth.

“I still love you, you do know that right?”

No answer.

“Petyr?”

Petyr got up suddenly, and she could tell with some difficulty. In the dark he started moving the furniture around, the legs of the bed scraping against the ground.

What was he doing?

He moved the bed to the furthest corner of the room and then disappeared from her sight.

“Petyr, please talk to me.”

She received her answer. A large black object, dragged in front of the vent, cutting her off.

He didn’t want to talk to her anymore.


	2. Present Day I

_Present_ _Day_

_~~~~_

“Cat, I’m sorry...“

It had been such a good day up until this point. One of the rare days where no one was in a bad mood. Her children’s laughter still rang in the back of her mind, even as it all lay dying.

Ned held his head in his hands and cried.

“I lost it, I lost the house!”

The rug was ripped right from under her.

“You...”

Ned sobbed and lowered to his knees in front of her, pressing his face into her thighs like a frightened child.

“Please forgive me, Cat, forgive me...”

~~~~

“Are you ever going to look at me again?”

Cat met his gaze through the vanity mirror.

“When is the eviction?”

His guilt was palpable. That’s what he gets for gambling with their family’s future.

“I suspect they will be kind enough to give us a month.”

Cat removed the necklace he’d bought for her for their last anniversary.

Her hand clutches into a fist. She could kill him.

“You still have the deed to your father’s old apartment don’t you?”

Her blood turned cold. “No!” She spun on him, eyes wide. “You promised me! You promised we’d never go back there!”

~~~~

The night air was cool.

“I thought you gave up smoking.”

She looked down at the smouldering stick in her hands.

“I did. I like the smell of it when I’m stressed.”

Ned leant against the porch door, head heavy.

Cat wanted to claw out his pitying eyes.

“How long?” she asked simply.

“A month. Two at most.”

“Is that how long it will take for you to fix this mess?“

Ned was a man of his word - she could count on that at least.

“Yes.”

Cat sighed, flicking the ash.

“And what if he is there?”

~~~~

“I don’t want to move!”

Her daughter kicked the seat in anger.

“We have to, dipshit, we’re broke.”

“Rob!“

Her children quieted down at their father’s temper.

Cat slammed her eyes shut, willing the world away.

They drove over the bridge from the familiar, comforting metropolis to the miserable downtrodden Valetown and all its grey little suburbs.

A creeping, familiar sense of dread caressed it’s way to Cat’s throat. Please not again.

The car pulled into a large grey apartment complex. A sign read: The Fingers Apts.

“What kind of godforsaken place is this?” her daughter scowled.

“Home,” said Cat.

~~~~

The Stark family sprawled out of the car into the grey courtyard.

“It looks like a prison.“

Cat hesitated - her hand on the door handle.

“Do we really have to stay here?”

Ned scooped up their youngest. “Only for a little while, while daddy sorts some things out with the bank.”

The older kids remained unimpressed.

“Did mom really grow up here?“

The swingset on the ancient playground creaked. Cat stared at it as though it were a ghost.

“We both did.”

Ned’s hand came upon her shoulder.

“And we’ll make it out again.”

~~~~

The children were finally - restlessly - asleep in their new rooms. She and Ned would occupy the pull out in the living room.

Cat stood out on the landing holding a smouldering cigarette. The temptation to take a drag was strong - and god, didn’t she deserve as much.

Heavy footsteps clambered on to the stairwell below.

She quickly snuffed out the cigarette on the bottle-dash stucco. Just in case it was the building manager coming to scold her.

She hid the butt in her back pocket and wiped her hands on the front of her jeans. The last thing she needed was to be reamed out by that slovenly old codger.

As she righted herself, a dark swaying figure made itself on to the landing like an ominous dark cloud.

Her blood shot cold.

He was almost unrecognizable. His bulky black coat did much to hide his small stature. Sallow skin, dark circles, and the putrid stench of alcohol and neglect. The eyes that looked at her were dilated and vacant. But it was him, of that she had no doubt.

“Petyr?”

Grey eyes met her amazed gaze. Familiarity cutting through the haze of drink.

“Cat?”

~~~~

All of the sudden, it was the winter of 1985 again, and she and Petyr were standing across from each other, like two souls separated by a pane of glass.

“Hello?” her breath evaporated in a ghostly wisp.

He staggered where he stood, trying to keep himself upright.

He did not speak.

“We’re back...Ned and I...”

A twinge akin to pain crossed his features.

“I didn’t know you’d be here. I had hoped...”

He looked away. She couldn’t bring herself to say it. She had hoped he wouldn’t be. She had hoped never to have to see him again.

God, he looked awful.

“I’m sorry.”

The words hung out in the chill November air with no direct purpose. What was she sorry for? Anything?

Everything.

“Cat, are you coming back inside...”

She felt the warmth of the apartment hit her back. Sensed Ned standing behind her. The air around them became insufferably tense.

“Oh. It’s you.” He noticed Petyr. The haunted little shadow of the boy they once knew.

“Ned,” Cat hissed.

Petyr swayed unsteadily. So imbued with cheap alcohol she wondered if he could barely comprehend them at all.

He reached shakily for the wall to guide himself to his apartment and leant heavily against the door as he fished out his keys. Disappearing inside.

A memory shuddered through Cat’s bones, and she shivered.

“What was that about?” Ned asked softly.

A spark of anger ignited in her chest. A bitterness seeping into her veins.

“Would it kill you to show a little kindness?”

Ned’s mouth fell open.

“Let me in. I’m freezing.”

She pushed past him and made her way into the room housing her slumbering daughters, crawling into the bed next to her eldest that ran along the wall that had once divided hers and Petyr’s bedroom.


	3. 1985 II

_1985_  
~~~~~

Petyr was not at school the next day, but the cops were.

“We’ve seen a rise in violent assault in the area. Especially towards children. One of your peers was savagely attacked two nights ago. He has been taken to hospital with extensive injuries.”

Cat sat beside Brandon, who smiled to himself. She glanced over her shoulder at Ned, guiltily.

“If any of you have seen anything, or know anything about who could have done this to Petyr, we encourage you to come down to the station and have a chat with us.”

Ned caught her eye knowingly.

~~~~

She waited on the steps. She’d spent what was left of her allowance buying Petyr’s favourite candy bar.

The old beater pulled up to the apartment building and Mrs Baelish got out.

“Oh Cat, what are you doing sitting out here, dear?”

She handed over the candy bar.

“It’s for Petyr.”

“Oh, how thoughtful of you.”

“How is Petyr?”

Mrs Baelish pressed her lips together.

“He’ll be back home tomorrow.”

Mr. Baelish came up next. “Ello, Catelyn,” his eyes leered over her.

Petyr echoed in her head. _“Stay away from him. He’s a pervert.”_

She shivered and looked away.

~~~~

It was late when they brought him home from the hospital.  
Around midnight she heard the tell-tale shuffling of feet in the room next door.

Cat yearned to talk to him. To explain. To plead.

She waited until everyone was gone and snuck outside her window on to the landing. It was chilly, she shivered.

There was a light in the window, and she could just make out his outline through the threadbare curtains. He sat on his bed staring at the wall.

She tapped on the window. “Petyr? Let me in, won’t you?”

He didn’t.

Petyr didn’t move.

~~~~

Brandon felt untouchable. Like he could get a way with anything. With murder.

“Hey you!” He pointed to a random kid. They ran. “Get him!”

“Brandon!”

They pinned him down in the school yard. He kicked them in the stomach.

“I don’t.” _Kick._ “Like.” _Kick._ “The way.” _Kick._ “You look at her!”

“BRANDON STOP!!”

She screamed. Everyone stopped. His face turned red.

“I’m doing this for you, babe. You should be grateful.”

“Well I don’t want it!”

His hand raised to strike her. Ned caught it.

“Don’t Brandon. Just leave it.”

Brandon scowled.

“Fine,” he spat, and marched off.

~~~~

Cat’s steps are heavy on the pavement. Ned follows behind her silently.

The voice in her head kept screaming. _It has to be done._

“It doesn’t have to be you,” Ned says, as if reading her thoughts.

She stops. “You know it does.”

“For Petyr?“

“For myself.”

She is resolute. She wants her freedom.

“You don’t have to come with me.”

“I do.”

He touches her hand, and it tingles with electricity.

“He’s gone too far. I can’t stand around and watch him anymore.”

Cat clasps his hand and their fingers interlace. Together, they walk into the police station.

~~~~

“Did you hear, Petyr?” she whispers into the vent. “Brandon’s been arrested. He’s being sent to Juvy.”

Silence. She spoke anyway.

“I did it for you.”

She pressed her ear against the wall. She knew that he was in there - that he was listening.

“Do you forgive me now?”

She tapped a message into the wall. A code they hadn’t used since they were little.

_Please forgive me._

A moment of silence. Then, hesitantly, he taps back.

_I do._

She smiles. _Thank you_. She replies.

He taps again. This time not so hesitantly.

_Now stay away from me._


	4. Present Day II

_Present Day_

~~~~

“I fucking hate this place!”

Her daughter stormed out of the bathroom. The hot water tank was bust again.

She slammed her bedroom door rattling the walls.

Ned looked down at his coffee cup and stirred it idly. He tried to laugh, tried to make a joke. 

Cat stood wordlessly and walked out of the oppressive apartment to the bleak November morning. She lit a cigarette.

It was always grey here. Everything. As though the colour had been sucked - drained - faded from every living thing.

She flicked the ashes on to the ground. 

Petyr’s door was red.

~~~~

One week had passed since she had met him on the landing, and she hadn’t heard or seen anything from him since.

He was avoiding her. She was sure of it.

It probably wasn’t the worst thing anyways.

What would they have to say to each other? She hardly knew him anymore.

A small guilty twinge pinched her gut. _It was her fault._

She pushed the thought down. She refused to feel guilty over what happened twenty years ago.

She looked down to the cigarette.

Just one puff was all she needed. 

Suddenly, the red door opened.

~~~~

_Petyr._

He was far from her childhood playmate. He had grown. Not so tall as her husband - not so handsome either. Or, more specifically, whatever parts of him that could be considered handsome were obscured. 

He looked tired and worn out. Drained. 

His eyes still glimmered with green though. Life - and he looked better than he had drunk.

The cigarette burnt to the stub as she took him in, and the embers touched the inside of her finger.

“Shit.” She dropped the cigarette.

She moved to pick it up. Petyr moved. Their hands touched.

Blue met green.

~~~~

“Hi,” she sounded breathless. Petyr didn’t move - didn’t breathe.

His lips twisted as though about to speak but he retreated down the stairs.

“Petyr, wait!” 

She followed after him. 

She caught his shoulder. He jerked away in surprise. As though he hadn’t been touched in a long while. _God, he hasn’t been touched._

Her hand curls into a fist - burnt with shame.

“I’m sorry. Can we talk? Please.”

His eyes shifted around uneasily. 

“I know I don’t deserve anything from you but...please.“

A weathered, unfamiliar voice tumbled from his stubbled, twisted mouth.

“Why did you come back?”

~~~~

“What was that all about?”

“Ned please.”

She walked back inside the apartment.

“What did he say to you?”

“Just drop it, please.”

Their children rushed by them in a chorus of “Bye Mom”. The didn’t want to change schools, Robb volunteered to drive. Cat was grateful. There was no way she’d let them attend the school here.

Ned understood that at least.

“I made a promise to you, do you remember?” Ned took her hands. “I promised I would get you out of here, and I will. There’s no need dragging the past out of here with us.”

~~~~

Cat lay wide awake. The pull out creaked with every movement.

Ned snored softly beside her. He could sleep deeply on a bed of nails.

She could never be comfortable in this apartment. 

Through the paper thin walls she could hear movement in the apartment next door.

The front door opening.

She got up and went to the window.

The bulky black form of her boy next door, her old secret friend, _her ghost_ , Petyr, appeared on the landing. 

It was starting to snow.

_He should be wearing a hat_ , she thought. 

Her stomach twisted painfully with a memory.

~~~~

He did this before. 

When they were children - _after._

_He never wore a hat._

Her fingernails dig into the wood of the window frame. 

A figure emerged from the nearby woods. A small figure. A child. 

She wore no hat either. No coat. Yet didn’t seem chilled. 

She approached Petyr. She knew him. She was looking for him. And him her. 

Through the blur of snow and foggy glass Cat saw them. Petyr held out his hand, and she took it. The two of them disappeared into the woods.

Cat swore, she recognized that child - but where?


	5. 1985 III

_1985_  
~~~~

The wall between their bedrooms is so thin, most nights she can hear the faint sounds of him breathing. Now, he so quiet, she can barely hear him at all. 

The sound of his window shushing open is like wary sigh in the quiet dark. She looks over at the clock. It’s nearly midnight. _Where is he going?_

Footsteps light on the landing. Cat slowly gets up and walks over to the window. 

Petyr’s slight form, in his old green coat descends down the stairs, to the small playground in the courtyard.

It’s nearly November and he isn’t wearing a hat.

He sits on one of the swings, swaying slightly, digging the toe of his boots in the dirt.

They used to sit on those swings for hours and talk. Now he sat alone, his face obscured by the high collar of his coat. 

Cat longs to join him.To have things go back to the way they used to be - before.

Something stops her though. A pang of guilt that has followed her around since that day. 

When she abandoned him. 

His parents pulled him from school for the rest of the semester that day.

~~~~

“Roose says that he’s horribly scarred now. Like Quasimodo,” her brother wouldn’t shut up over breakfast.

“His parents are ashamed to have him go out in public because he’s so hideous!“

“Shut up, Ed,” Lysa kicked him in the shin.

Cat pressed her lips and said nothing. 

“Roose says that Petyr attacked Brandon first. We’re probably living next door to some kind of psycho.”

Cat slammed the bowl of cereal down in front of him. 

“How would you know? You weren’t there, were you?”

Edmure looks away from her, face reddening.

“Roose says...” 

“Roose Bolton doesn’t know shit.”

~~~~

Ned met her behind the school bathrooms. 

“I saw my brother.”

“Mm,” Cat nodded.

“He knows it was us.”

Ned stuffed his hands in his pockets.

“How do you know?”

“I just do,” he shrugged. “And I think he knows why.”

“We agreed on why.”

Ned nodded. Behind them the sounds of the other kids was like a looming echo. Cat and Ned no longer felt like kids.

“That wasn’t the real reason why I did it.”

“I know.”

He stepped towards her, his fingers touching hers. Electricity.

~~~~

Cat knocked on the red door. 

Mr. Baelish answered it. 

“Ello Catelyn,” he breathed darkly.

Cat took a half step back.

“Is Petyr there? I have his things from school.”

Mr. Baelish crossed his arms. 

“I don’t think he wants to see anyone at this moment.”

He eyed her up and down - she always hated the way he looked at her. As if he could see right through her, under her, within her. 

“Please, just for a moment.”

Mr. Baelish didn’t move an inch. 

“I’ll let him know you dropped by.”

Cat nodded, handing over the items from Petyr’s locker.

“And Catelyn...”

She paused.

“I know it was you.”

~~~~

She sits by her bedroom window, waiting for him to emerge. 

It’s again almost midnight when she hears the same sighing shush of his window; the tender thud of his feet on the landing. 

He takes his place down on the swing set as he had done before and every night since. This night she is determined to talk to him face to face.

She lifts the latch about to open the window and crawl out, but is stopped when a girl appears, seemingly out of nowhere. A younger girl, younger than her and Petyr - about eleven or twelve. 

She approaches Petyr.

He acknowledges her - as though he has met her before although Cat has never seen her.

She joins him on the swing. 

Cat’s fingers curl around the window frame.  
The girl wears nothing but a thin pink sweater and faded jeans. No hat, no coat, yet she doesn’t seem bothered by the cold.

She leans over and takes Petyr’s hand on herd and Cat suddenly feels a queer pang in her chest. 

The girl leans over to whisper something and kisses Petyr’s cheek.

Cat tears away from the window and returns to bed, slamming her eyes shut.


	6. Present Day III

_Present Day_  
~~~~

Ned paced back and forth. 

“No that’s...that’s not what we agreed upon...”

Cat watched him from the front window. Standing outside the apartment. Smoking.

“What do you mean it isn’t there? For Christ’s sake!”

He kicked one of the kitchen chairs over. Cat jerked at the loud bang. She took a drag. 

“I don’t understand...I don’t fucking believe this.”

Cat hid the cigarette at the sounds of her children walking up the metal steps.

“Motherfucker!”

Her eldest halted the procession on the top step. His eyes met hers. She smiled tightly.

“Who wants to go for a walk?”

~~~~

The old diner she used to go with her father was still there - under new management.

“Mom?” Her son asks her over his milkshake. “Is dad in trouble?”

She looks at all of them. Their uncertain, trusting faces. It nearly brings her to tears.

“Your father and I are in a rough spot, but it’s only temporary.”

Her eldest sneers and looks out the window.

“Will we ever go back home?”

Her heart breaks, knowing she had no answer for them.

“For now, this is our home.“

Her son turns to her bitterly. 

“And why did you leave?”

~~~~

When they return - the girl is sitting on the old swing set in the playground.

Jacket-less. Shoeless. Long red hair draped forward to obscure her face. 

Cat eyes her warily.

“Who is that, mom?” her daughter asks.

“I don’t know,” Cat squeezes her hand tighter. 

“Why isn’t she wearing a coat?“

“I don’t know.”

“Does she live around here?“

“I don’t know.”

“Can I go say hi?”

Cat looks over at the girl. She sits eerily still. As though she is waiting. 

Something tells her to keep her daughter as far away from that child as possible. 

~~~~

Petyr stands on the landing, watching the girls as they play. The mysterious child with her long hair and pale, dirty fingers.

“She yours?”

She points down at the girl. He looks at her, his mouth pressing into a crooked moue.

“She is...I’m her...”

He doesn’t seem able to say the words.

“She’s beautiful. Who’s her mother?“

His jaw tightens.

“There isn’t one. She’s...uh...not in the picture.”

Cat ducks her eyes. Her cheeks warm with embarrassment.

“I’m sorry.”

He shrugs and takes a flask from his pocket, swigging from it.

“Should you be doing that?“

He laughs bitterly. 

“We all have our vices, Cat.”

She realizes is the first time he’s said her name since they were children.

~~~~

“Ned...”

The children were asleep in their bedrooms, and the walls were paper thin - and she could fucking _smell_ the whiskey on his breath.

“Come on, it’s been so long...”

“No Ned, not here.”

He’s never pawed at her before. Not in their whole relationship. Not like a needy dog.

“I just need...I need...”

“Get off me.”

“Caaat please...”

“I’m not in the mood!” She shoves him off her. The bed spring squeals. She marches to her daughter’s bedroom and locks the door.

~~~~

“Mom, are you ok?”

Her oldest daughter lifts her head up from her pillow.

Cat sits at the end of their bed, shoulders slumped. She wipes her face.

“I’m fine, baby. Go back to sleep.”

“Did daddy hurt you?”

“No, no. Your father is a good man. Remember that always. He would never hurt any one of us.”

“But he’s made you so sad.”

Cat cupped her daughters cheek.

“Everything will be alright, sweetheart. Mommy’s just gonna bunk with you tonight if that’s ok?”

Her daughter nods and shifts over. Cat climbs in beside her. Back pressed against the wall.

~~~~

She greets her children at the tube station. 

It’s the first good day she’s had in a while. They hug her when they get off the platform.

“How was your day my darlings?”

Even her eldest is happy to see her. He kisses her cheek.

“Ello mum.”

There is a break in the clouds and a bright November sun shines through. 

They walk happily together from the station. They stop for ices at the nearby convenience. Her children’s laughter lightens her heart.

Maybe they are finally over the hump.

“Mom,” her eldest gently touches her arm. His tone is soft but cautious. 

“What is it?“

“I think we’re being followed.

~~~~

A black Mercedes. Recent model. Darkly tinted windows. Darkly.

License plate: LTM31N. 

Completely ordinary, yet unmistakable.

She’d seen it in the parking lot at the train station.

It lingered down the road behind them, parked to the side of the road.

“I noticed it outside the convenience also.”

Her son spoke low so as not to worry the others. 

Cat looked back at the car again. The windows were so dark she couldn’t even peer inside it.

“It must just be a coincidence.”

~~~~

That night she hears Petyr stir through the wall. 

“Shh...”

She hears a whisper from the vent. A whimper.

“Please daddy...”

“Shh...sweetling.”

A faint light comes from from the vent between their two bedrooms. She shifts her body down the mattress so that she can bring her eye to the little peep hole.

She can’t see much. The dim shape of Petyr’s back. The form of his arm shifting back and forth over something - someone. The body is shielded from her view by his own.

“You’re so far away from me...”

Another whimper.

“I-I don’t like it when you drink...”

“Shhhh,” he cooed again. “Let me make it better.”

The arm dipped lower. The girl sighed.

Cat brought her hand to her mouth to stifle her gasp.

She covered the vent with a pillow and brought the blankets over her head. Willing her eyes to unsee what she was sure she just witnessed.

_No. Please no._

Memories from that blasted winter shot back into her mind. Memories she had spent the last twenty years desperately trying to quash. A long forgotten fear.

_Please. Not like his father._ She prayed. _Tell me Petyr has not turned into his father._


	7. 1985 IV

_1985_  
~~~~

_Tap-tap-tap._

Cat was awoken from a fitful sleep by a sound.

_Tap-tap-tap._

__

__

_“Petyr...”_

The voice was wispy and dream-like.

_“Petyr, let me in.”_

Cat thought her spirit had stepped outside her body and made itself corporeal. 

It was not a dream though. Someone was on the landing, trying to get in.

_“Petyr...”_

His window slid open.

_“Please Petyr, it’s cold out here. Can I come in?“_

Cat heard him shuffle, moving aside to let her pass.

_“You have to say it. You have to say I can come in.”_

Cat heard him speak. He sounded so different.

“You can come in.”

~~~~

A kid has recently been murdered in the area. 

It’s all anyone can talk about. The newspapers, the parents, the other kids.

They didn’t even know him. 

Ned holds Cat’s hand as they walk. Her brother won’t stop talking.

“Roose said the he was hung upside down like an animal.”

“Roose will say anything.”

“Cut open like a pig.”

“No more please, Edmure!”

Her brother continued. “Killed as a blood sacrifice to a child hungry demon who likes to snatch nasty little children from their beds and drag them into the woods.”

Lysa shrieked. 

“For fuck’s sake EDMURE!”

His laughter died.

“I’m only joking, Cat.”

“Well, stop it. It’s gross and it’s not funny.”

He rolls his eyes.

“Why do you always have to be a fucking buzzkill?”

An anger burns so deep and hot within her. Her hand moves so fast it takes her a full ten seconds afterwards to realize she struck him.

Her brother holds his cheek. Tears blooming in his eyes.

“You’re right,” angry tears blossom in hers. “I’m not your mother, and I shouldn’t fucking have to be.”

Ned touches her shoulder. She shrugs.

“Take them, will you? I want to be alone.”

~~~~

She makes it home and slams the door. Her stomach roiling. 

Her father was asleep on the couch, an empty bottle of Jagermeister on his chest. Unmoved since the night before. No doubt he intended to go out again tonight.

The responsibility always fell on her.

Cat clears all the empty bottles off the floor and coffee table into a bag. Checks the cupboards for what to make for dinner tonight. 

Empty. 

She stands over her father. Puts her hand in his pocket.

Empty.

Her hand closes in a tight fist. Her blue eyes burn with anger.

“Useless shit.”

~~~~

A knock at the door.

Her father ventured out of his room, somewhat dressed, barely shaved. He answers the door.

Cat watched from the crack in her bedroom door.

A shiver runs up her arm as Mr. Baelish crosses the threshold. She wishes she could bar him. Force him out. 

It’s like he can sense her watching him.

“Ello Cattie,” he wiggles his fingers unnervingly.

She shuts her door on him, and locks it. She listens through the wall.

“Ready to go Hoster?” Mr. Baelish’s slick voice still creeps up her arm.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

~~~~

There’s a tap at her window. She looks up and Ned is there.

He waves.

“Hey,” she smiles warmly.”

“Hey, I...” he ducks his head shyly. “I was worried about you...you seemed really upset earlier.“

She shakes her head. “I’m fine.”

He pulls something from behind his back. A cheap little grey wolf toy.

“It’s not much...I just thought you might like it.”

It is small but it is soft. She smiles. 

“I love it.”

He smiles.

“I like making you happy.”

She blushes.

He touches her hand. It tingles.”

“Goodnight Cat.”

~~~~

“You like him, don’t you?”

Petyr’s voice surprises her. It’s the first time he’s spoken to her since...

He stands just in the shadows. Their two parallel windows open to the night. Ned has long disappeared down the stairs, leaving her to cradle his gift.

It takes Cat a moment to recover from the shock.

“You’ve been spending time with him...with Ned...”

She looks back out to the space Ned had just occupied.

“He’s thoughtful...and nice.”

The silence between them is painful.

“What about your new friend. I’ve seen you with her...“

Petyr doesn’t immediately respond.

“You seem to be...close. When did you...”

“Her name’s Alayne.”

“Oh.”

Cat swallowed the lump in her throat.

“Is she your girlfriend?”

“No...I guess so...yes.”

“I’m glad you’ve...”

She can’t bring herself to say it.

“She seems...nice.”

Petyr said nothing.

Something inside Cat broke. A sound almost like a sob escaped her.

“I hate this.”

He did not need to ask for clarification. Cat leaned out of her window to try and catch his face but he stepped more into the shadows.

Her heart sank.

“Will you never stop punishing me for what I did?”

His grey eyes pierced through her.

“No.”

~~~~

“I saw Brandon yesterday.”

Ned leads her aside to a secret nook near the toilets.

“How did he look?

He shrugs. 

“He’s pissed.”

“Because of us?“

Ned didn’t meet her eyes.

“It’s a two-year minimum sentence.”

Cat looked down at her shoes as well.

“And what does that mean?“

“It means when he gets out he’s going to exact his revenge on all of us.”

“You mean Petyr?”

“All of us.”

Cat resolutely looked into his face. Cold, hard, determined.

“We’ll just have to be long gone by then, won’t we?”

~~~~

It snowed that night. A light steady dusting of large white flakes.

Petyr stepped on to the landing once again to meet this Alayne girl. He wasn’t wearing a hat. 

Cat was counting on it. She’d waited up for him the last few nights hoping to catch him before he disappeared with her.

When he appeared on the landing she was quick to throw on her winter jacket, boots, gloves and hat over her pajamas. 

“Petyr!”

He stops.

She runs up to him clutching an old worn green hat.

“It’s snowing.”

He looks up at the multitude of flakes as if just now realizing.

“Here.”

She places the hat on his head.

“So you don’t get cold.”

Petyr gives a weak smile. His face is still bruised, the lip scabbed where it had split, and a dark line remained under his eye.

Her heart clenched. She reaches her glove hand to touch his face. He flinches. She retracts.

“I’m so sorry.”

He averts his gaze.

“I just...” She sighs. “Please be careful out there. Brandon may be in juvy, but he still has friends...and he hates us.”

Petyr finally meets her gaze. His hand reaches out and touches her. He gives her a soft, warm smile though it did not reach his eyes.

“Go inside, Cat, it’s cold.”

~~~~

Cat clutches her jacket around her tightly as she makes her way back to her bedroom. 

Mr. Baelish stands under the light on the landing. Smoking. 

“Cold night tonight.”

He flicks ashes into the forming swells of snow. The shadows on his face make him look like a demon.

Cat stands frozen on the top step.

“I’m waiting on your Da. We’re going for drinks. I’m sure he’d be curious to know what you’ve been getting up to. You and your little friends.”

Cat’s hand curls into a shaking fist.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

Mr. Baelish chuckles. A shiver runs up her spine. He flicks the cigarette over the railing.

“I know what you’ve done to my boy. You and your little boyfriend.”

“He’s not my boyfriend anymore.”

Mr. Baelish grabs her arm suddenly and very tightly. 

“I’m a shit father, Catelyn, just like my old man. I know I am. But despite all my failures, I made him. And some fucker put a scar on him, navel to collarbone. _You_ did that.”

He releases her arm and Cat scrambles to get away from him.

“See you around, Catelyn.”

He disappears down the stairs.

**Author's Note:**

> This is an experimental fic of mine. I usually don’t write in a Drabble style, and this is a very fixed, linear Drabble, I was hoping would create an unsettling effect on the reader. A little atmosphere, a little intrigue. A little squiggling in the gut.
> 
> It’s heavily inspired by the Swedish novel Let Me In or Let the Right One In - I can’t remember which is the English and which is the Swedish title. That might give you a wee clue to my story if you are familiar with the property. 
> 
> I also don’t usually write from Cat’s perspective so this will be fun. 
> 
> Enjoy!


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